Daniel Golding wrote:
The big lessons seem to be these...
1) The Internet, as currently constituted makes a lousy news propagation method, for large audiences. The one to many model in unicast IP puts too large of a load on the source. Good multicast (which we don't have yet) may fix this. Until that happens, the TV is still a better broadcast news medium. Mechanisms like Akamai's Edgesuite are a pretty good solution until that occurs, as they distribute the load pattern, from a "one to many" to a "many to many" model.
Akamai did not work well Tuesday morning, at least for me. I do not know whether their servers were overloaded, or couldn't get content from the source, but they did NOT work well as seen from here. Washington Post.com, for example, loaded ONCE for me before about 3:00 PM EDT, and I know that site is Akamized. Contrarily Yours Marshall Eubanks
2) The Internet is superior to circuit switched services for one to one communications during this sort of condition. Fast busies were the order of the day in NYC and DC for the PSTN and cell phone networks. Instant Messanger services, IRC and email were more reliable than the telephone network by several orders of magnitude.
3) Since the transient from normal conditions was server-limited, there were not any significant network congestion issues. The next time a major event like this happens (and, of course, there will be a next time), news sites may be better prepared, which could cause the next transient from normal conditions to be network-limited.
The big winners were cable TV, email, packet networks and IM applications. The big losers with cell phones, circuit switching, PSTN, non-akamized news sites.
(My apologies if this post if perceived to be on-topic, operational, or has anything to do with internetworking. We will now return to our regularly scheduled, off-topic posts)
- Daniel Golding Sockeye Networks
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu]On Behalf Of Marshall Eubanks Sent: Monday, September 17, 2001 1:17 PM To: Sean Donelan Cc: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: What Worked - What Didn't
Sean Donelan wrote:
As the New York Stock market re-opens, and some things are returning to normal, I'd like to look at how well the Internet performed last week.
At the Oakland NANOG I'd like to give a presentation about what worked, and what didn't work during the last week in regards to the Internet. I would like to gather what details I can from both small and large providers in New York, the rest of the USA, and even overseas about what they saw, what problems they experienced, and what things worked.
You can send me private mail if you wish, with or without attribution. This is a personal effort, not assocated with my employer.
Oakland NANOG is several weeks away, so I don't expect an immediate response. I expect many ISPs will be conducting their own internal reviews. But if you could, please consider responding. I'm looking for input from small, medium and large providers. Thank you.
A few questions, all related to the time between Sept 11 and 17:
1. Briefly tell me who you are, and generally where your operations were located?
2. What worked?
3. What didn't work?
4. Did you activate your emergency response plan?
5. Were you required to do anything different operationally? Did you make preventive operational changes?
6. Were any infrastructure administration functions impaired, such as DNS registration, routing registry, address delegation?
7. Were you able to communicate NOC-to-NOC when needed?
8. Were any means of communications nonfunctional or impaired (direct dial telephone, toll-free telephone, pager, e-mail, fax) when you attempted to communicate with other NOC's?
9. Did you ask for or receive a request for mutual aid from any other providers? Was it provided?
10. Within the limits of safety and rescue efforts, where you able to gain access to your physical facilities?
11. Did hoaxes or rumors impact your operations?
12. Do you have any recommendations how Internet providers could have responded differently?
Sean;
Multicasting worked. It handled a big traffic spike without a hiccup.
Regards Marshall Eubanks
T.M. Eubanks Multicast Technologies, Inc 10301 Democracy Lane, Suite 410 Fairfax, Virginia 22030 Phone : 703-293-9624 Fax : 703-293-9609 e-mail : tme@multicasttech.com http://www.on-the-i.com
Test your network for multicast : http://www.multicasttech.com/mt/ Check the status of multicast in real time : http://www.multicasttech.com/status/index.html
T.M. Eubanks Multicast Technologies, Inc 10301 Democracy Lane, Suite 410 Fairfax, Virginia 22030 Phone : 703-293-9624 Fax : 703-293-9609 e-mail : tme@multicasttech.com http://www.on-the-i.com Test your network for multicast : http://www.multicasttech.com/mt/ Check the status of multicast in real time : http://www.multicasttech.com/status/index.html